It’s a shame that we as a society many times only worry about cures and not prevention when it comes to health. My office offers a service that will help detect oral cancer. Now that is not a prevention, but to detect oral cancer early gives a HUGE chance of curing the cancer. But it’s sad when insurance will not pay for the s$65 procedure and people many times decline the once a year oral cancer screening. It is called Vizalite and it’s proven to help detect oral cancer. Have you had an oral cancer screening? Consider this: You will probably spend more for a dinner out than it will cost you to get your oral cancer screening. Approximately 37,000 people in the US was newly diagnosed with oral cancer in 2010 and the number continues to grow.There are two distinct pathways by which most people come to oral cancer. One is through the use of tobacco and alcohol, a long term historic problem and cause, and the other is through exposure to the HPV-16 virus (human papilloma virus version 16), a newly identified etiology, and the same one which is responsible for the vast majority of cervical cancers in women. A small percentage of people (under 5 %) do get oral cancers from no currently identified cause. It is currently believed that these are likely related to some genetic predisposition.

Why Grove City Dental Uses Vizalite and Recommends An Annual Checkup

A person dies from oral cancer every hour of every day. If you add the sub category of laryngeal throat cancers, the rates of occurrence (about 10,000 additional new cases per year) and death are significantly higher. When found at early stages of development, oral cancers have an 80 to 90 % survival rate. Unfortunately at this time, the majority are found as late stage cancers, and this accounts for the very high death rate of about 45% at five years from diagnosis, and high treatment related morbidity in survivors. Late stage diagnosis is not occurring because most of these cancers are hard to discover, it is because of a lack of public awareness coupled with the lack of a national program for opportunistic screenings which would yield early discovery by medical and dental professionals.

Grove City Dental Cares. Please Let Us Help.

Even though insurance does not pay for the Vizalite oral screening when you consider the small cost of $65 in comparison to the potential life threatening cancers that can be detected and successfully treated it really makes the decision very easy. Call 614-808-1700 and set a time to get together with our office and get your screening completed this month. There’s no better time than today. April is a cancer awareness month. Become aware today.